WWII Bolt Action US Army Lieutenant Kelly plus BAR and SMG troops painted

Following on from my last WWII post I've finished my 'Kelly' model for my US army Kelly's Heroes themed Bolt Action (and Chain of Command) force.

I have to say that I really like the Artizan Designs miniature lines, they're lovely to paint. The sculpting is very straight forward and 'clean' with enough detail to give the models individual character. Many modern miniature lines, particularly in the fantasy and science fiction genres (which I also collect and play) have an excess of decoration which I sometimes find quite intimidating to paint. The models I've worked with over the years from Artizan have always been fun to paint.

Artizan models are metal with the usual flash and mould lines you would expect to have to deal with, they are bulky sculpts when compared to the plastics from Warlord Games but once painted and viewed from 2-3 feet away on the tabletop don't let that stop you mix and matching.

I'll be building a German force once I've completed my US army and I'll be buying Warlord Games' plastics for that army.

Here's the painted Kelly and two of his soldiers:

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Next up for my US army painting are another sergeant, Big Joe, along with another SMG and BAR dude. Then I'll need to do some more cleaning and priming to get my sniper, spotter and Observation team ready for painting. Once I have all the infantry painted I'll do a group photo and write down an army list.

Epic Armageddon Chaos Dreadnoughts Painted, Juggernaut WiP and Reinforcements

My Epic A force has taken a bit of a back seat recently while I've been busy elsewhere but I have managed to nudge it along since my last Epic post.

Below you'll see the work in progress of my main formations. The proxie Berserkers on the left and the Juggernauts on the right. The two spare stands at the back are going to be turned into standard bearers and/or Champions, I want something that I can swap in and out to tweak points values when it comes to putting lists together so this will give me a little wriggle room.

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My recent birthday saw Nick and I exchange a few epic minis (although my force got much the bigger boost) - you can see the additions to my collection below.

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There's 4 old style Land Raiders which I can 'Chaosify' along with enough bodies (including some old style Orks) to build another formation of infantry, plus Rhinos & chaos lords. This little selection gives me plenty of bodies (when added to my existing collection) to build my initial 1000 point force. Also, crucially, it unlocks more elite slots etc. in the army lists by adding another formation into the mix when going onto bigger force sizes.

I have managed to get some painting on the Epic force finished: my Dreadnoughts! Here they are:

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WWII US Army Painting Progress and Reinforcements

It's been what feels like an age since I last posted. Family birthdays, parties, kids breaking up for summer holidays, kids at home during summer holidays when working from home. It all amounts to a lot of 'stuff' happening and doesn't leave much room for hobby time.

Coupled with all of the above I've been working on my own skirmish ruleset which is getting very close to completion. It needs quite a lot of painting and photography sorting before it's finished so that's been taking up 'hobby' time (I'll post about that some other time).

But, in amongst all of that chaos, I have managed to make some progress on my Bolt Action US Army, here's Sergeant Oddball from a couple of angles:

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As I mentioned, we've had quite a few birthdays in our family recently including me! I've received quite a few reinforcements for my project:

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There's US sniper team plus a couple of observation dudes that will make a Forward Observer 2-man team. There's a MMG Jeep and plus two Shermans! (One with wooden armour - very appropriate for any of those japanese spear mine wotsits Nick is modeling).

I also got Kelly, 2 x SMGs, 2 x BARs and Big Joe from Artizan Designs range to fill out my existing infantry, the WiP of these is below (there's been more progress since this pic was taken).

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I was also lucky enough to receive some money so I actually bought the Bolt Action rulebook - read half of it so far. Looks a lot of fun. Incidentally I also have the Two Fat Lardies Chain of Command in digital format so I'm looking forward to playing both and comparing the play experience of them. On the surface of it they look as though they provide very different opportunities and tactical choices.

Taking all things into consideration my US force is coming along nicely. I'm going to have to have a bit of a think about how I'm going to squeeze multiple Shermans into the army in regular games due to construction restrictions. I'm pretty sure I'll be making up my own 'Kelly's Heroes' inspired scenarios to incorporate Oddball's tank squadron though so they'll definitely all get on the table at some point. Plus I'm aware that Warlord Games are publishing a Tank Battles books in the near future so that could open up some interesting opportunities too.